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thought the present question materially affected the liberty of the press . It was by the liberty of the press that this country had grown great : he did not speak of it in its licentious sense . This gentleman had not spoken of Scripture with disrespect . He had certainly said that
some persons had entertained doubts of the inspiration of its writers ; but he himself spoke iu terms of the highest eulogy of the New Testament . He called it < c a religion of peace and love , as unfolded by the apostles . " He qualified his denial of those doctrines which he controverted by saying that , " physiologically speaking , " it was impossible to believe them , calling them , at the same
time , sublime doctrines , and admitting that they had existed in all places and in all ages , and therefore depended not on his inferences . He talked of Paschal , who was the best friend of Christianity , as " the profound , fervent , and pious ascnai
j ^ . m snort , it tnere were any exceptionable passages in the book , there were others which contained their antidote , and the whole work should be taken together . He ( Mr . Shadwell ) would rather drop down lifeless upon the ground , than attempt for a moment to uphold the doctrine of Materialism ,
as tending to overturn belief in a future state . Hut the principles in the book before the Court were quite consistent with the notion of existence in a future
world ; and a valuable work of this kind ought not to be condemned , and the author to lose the price of his labour , because there might happen to be a passage or two in it which might as well have been omitted . Mr . Jl'ilbraham followed on the same side with Mr . Shad well , and said that the defendant had no claim to the favour of
the Court , who had taken to himself the iruits and profits of the plaintiffs labour ivithout any moral right whatever to the work ; but merely because he thought there were a few passages in it which disentitled it to the protection of the law . The learned gent , then contended that I he doctrine contained in the Lectures
was perfectly reconcileable with Christianity ; and argued from a passage in the burial service , in addition to what Mr . Sluidwell had cited , that a mutual existence of the soul and body Was the result after death . In tlie sentence " the dead
. shall be raised , " &c , « the words in the Greek were ol nekroi , and not te ? i nekren in the neuter . Dr . Butler had said that that doctrine depended on revelation only , and not on natural principles . Mr . Lawrence ' s Materialism was confined to this life , and contained no principle contrary to the immortality of the soul here-
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after * when the resurrection took p ^» and it was countenanced by Scri pty ^ ' With respect to his doctrine of maakk ^ j having descended from different parents that opinion was strengthened , not only by the different complexions of nations but also by the difference in their features , the formation of their bones , aad the substantive parts of . the body : and
he only said that " the Mosaic account did not make it clear , " &c . And as to saying that many doubted the inspiration of the scriptural writings , he was surely entitled to say what were the opinions of others ; but that was not stating that they were his own . On the contrary , he spoke of their simple grandeur , and said that " thev were not inferior to the
uninspired writings of the East , " from which the inference was , that he looked upon them as inspired . The Mosaic account of the deluge , the collection of two of every description of animal on the earth , he stated to be a zoological impossibility ; but he did not deny the fact , that it took place miraculously . With respect to a passage in Mr . Wetherell ' s speech , in which he stated that Mr .
Lawrence was no longer Lecturer to the College of Surgeons , he should state that he laid down the office of his own accord , in consequence of his increased practice ; and the members of the College had expressed their regret at his so dohijj . These Lectures were delivered in 1816
and 1817 : in 1819 he delivered other Lectures , but in the interval these had been published . The College of Surgeons , therefore , had not only heard them delivered , but had them in print before 1819 , and what was their opinion of them ? ( Mr . Wilbraham here read an
affidavit of Mr . Lawrence , by which it appeared that he had received the thanks of the College of Surgeons for his luminous Lectures delivered in 1816 , 1817 , 1818 and 1819 . ) The learned counsel then resumed his argument , and insisted that the author of our planetary system might as well be condemned for
impugning the passage in Scripture which ascribed motion to the sun , and affirmed that it stood still on one day ; as Professor Lawrence ' s Lectures , because they asserted the zoological impossibility of one or two facts stated in Scripture . He concluded by expressing his hope that his Lordship would continue the injunction . ¦
^ ' ' ^^^ ^ ™ " ^^ ^~ ^ ^ ^ . ^ ^^^ ^ LJ A ^» ^^^^ i ^ B ^ K ¦ ^ ^ ^ B ^ ^^^ »* ^ ~ — The Lord Chancellor . —Mr . Wetherell , / shall hear you in reply on Tuesdayyou will lose nothing by the delay , f ° shall have an opportunity of reading the book in the mean time . ( To be continued . )
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318 Intelligence . —Law Report : Lawrence v . Smitk .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1822, page 318, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2512/page/62/
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